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Boycott call only grows backlash

The Lowell Sun

Updated:
06/23/2013 06:34:49 AM EDT

NOW THAT Friday's well-attended FOX25 "Zip-Trip" live broadcast at Veterans Memorial Park in Dracut is over, School Committee member Matthew Sheehan said he'll use airtime during the town's next scheduled live broadcast -- Monday's School Committee meeting at Harmony Hall on DATV -- to tell a certain town resident to "zip it."

Sheehan is the only School Committee member who hasn't endorsed the Town Meeting-approved override of Proposition 2 1/2 to add $2.9 million to the Dracut schools' 2013-14 operating budget. He said he is upset Rob Palmer, a member of the pro-override Stand Up for Dracut, called for consumers to boycott Shaw Farm.

On June 15, farm owner and WCAP talk host Warren Shaw and Selectmen Chairwoman Cathy Richardson, also an override opponent, suggested to listeners that the pro-override group be called "Stand Up For Higher Taxes."

Palmer wrote this about his boycott call on DracutForum.org: "It isn't because I don't share (Warren Shaw's) point of view on the proposed override, it was based on (Shaw's) comment that he is fine with Dracut having a (less than) mediocre school system."

"If Warren Shaw does not support the need to improve the school system then why should I or anyone else support his business?" Palmer asked.

On his Saturday morning show yesterday, Shaw said he has backed the schools for years, and that his comments were cherry-picked.

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"Since when is it right for ignorant parties to carry the banner for education?" Shaw asked.

Shaw said all five school board members and Superintendent of Schools Steven Stone have apologized for the posting.

Sheehan called Palmer's posting "disgusting."

Sheehan said he plans to make a public statement regarding boycotting "long-standing, taxpaying businesses," and the "misinformation that's being spread around out there."

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DRACUT SCHOOL Committee Chairman Michael McNamara insisted there was "nothing at all political" about the School Department's refusal to assist Andrew and Agnes Blatus in pursuing an MIAA waiver to let their hearing-impaired, 13-year-old son, Anthony, a freshman at Innovation Academy, wrestle for Dracut High. Stone determined it was an inappropriate request and the School Committee unanimously backed Stone, according to McNamara.

Agnes Blatus said her husband's brother, Michael Blatus, served with Athletic Director Tim Woods on the school board, and the pair "did not see eye-to-eye on much of anything."

"You don't think that might've had anything to do with this? Really?" she said, referencing Woods' apparent reluctance to assist with her son's waiver.

The Blatuses said they first approached Woods in December to ask for his help in filing the proper paperwork with the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association. They said Woods communicated mixed messages about whether he had filed paperwork with the MIAA, or only made "an inquiry" on Anthony's behalf, according to Agnes Blatus.

Stone informed the Blatus family in early May that Woods had been "diligently" investigating the waiver. Stone formally denied the Blatuses' waiver request by email on May 21.

As of Friday, the family was still contemplating hiring a lawyer to take legal action against the district on behalf of their son, Agnes Blatus said.

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THE BUDGET for the Lowell Regional Water Utility received close scrutiny from some councilors Tuesday night.

Councilors Edward Kennedy and Rodney Elliott expressed opposition to the often-embattled Utility adding two positions, increasing its head count from 37 to 39.

But both Utility Executive Director Dan Lahiff and City Manager Bernie Lynch defended the need for a $54,726 chief mechanic and a $35,823 principal clerk.

Lynch said the chief-mechanic position is vital because millions in upgrades at the Utility and maintenance issues have to be watched closely.

Lahiff, who spent time in a dark mayor's reception room during the meeting, said the Utility wants to be more proactive than reactive. (A poster was put up at the Utility with a similar phrase because some feel Lahiff has been too reactive to maintenance issues.)

Lahiff and Lynch did not mention that a chief-mechanic position had been listed in three of the previous four budgets, though never funded.

Asked why a position he said was so important has gone unfilled for several years, Lynch told The Column: "As you know, we have had some other issues at the Water Department. I wanted to see where we stood with the personnel over there before moving forward."

Also unsaid at the meeting was that in the previous two budgets and in the current one, there has been a vacant but funded CMMS administrator position. The budgeted salary for the position is $55,538. Responsibilities include managing a computerized maintenance system to track all the work orders that need to take place.

So much for the pressing nature of the maintenance work Lynch and Lahiff talked about.

In the end, only Elliott and Kennedy voted for Elliott's motion to cut the two positions.

Councilor Rita Mercier, who has been critical of the department and Lahiff, voted against the motion. She had spoken with Lahiff during a visit to the Utility earlier in the day, and says he convinced her of the need for the positions.

Not such a surprise was that Councilor John Leahy, an admitted friend of Lahiff's who was seen chumming it up with him in the cloak room before the meeting, spoke in favor of the positions and voted that way.

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IN RESPONSE to Kennedy, Lahiff told the council there are two strong in-house candidates.

Later in the night when the topic came up again, Lahiff said he was referring to two internal candidates for the mechanic's position and there would likely be a new body to fill the new clerk's position.

Lynch told The Column on Friday the positions have yet to be posted.

"That's a surprise to me," said Kennedy. "From what Mr. Lahiff told us, it seemed the positions were posted and there were internal candidates."

Lynch said the positions will be posted so the city can make sure it gets the best candidates, internal or external.

The incident was reminiscent of last year, when Lynch put the name of a woman to fill a new position in the Parking Department in the budget, though the position had not been posted.

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DOES ONE of Lowell's most respected businessmen have a secret identity?

At the dedication of the George L. Duncan Park outside the financial institution he founded, Lowell's Enterprise Bank, Nancy Donahue listed the many ways Duncan has made a difference in the city: His support for public health and organizations like Lowell Community Health Center; his support for the arts through organizations like the Whistler House; support for museums like the American Textile History Museum and the Quilt Museum; his support for performing arts and organizations like the Merrimack Repertory Theater; to his support for social services and organizations like Community Teamwork Inc.

Those gathered outside the downtown branch offered a hearty round of applause for the now-unmasked superhero.

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FINN'S PUB owner Kevin Hayhurst is facing criminal charges and his bar is in hot water with the city License Commission due to a May 4 incident in which Hayhurst allegedly punched and kicked a UMass Lowell student during the UMass Lowell Senior Pub Crawl.

The incident at Finns was just the first of several on the night of the crawl where several hundred students took part.

At least a dozen police officers responded to Finns at 7:15 p.m. after dispatchers got a report that someone tried to tear a jukebox off the wall.

Several dozen students, including a young man with an ice pack on his eye, talked to police outside Finns as the incident was calmed.

One girl in a pub crawl T-shirt drew the ire of Police Sgt. Mickey O'Keefe, an erstwhile movie star, because she refused to move along as police tried to restore order. The girl, who was not arrested, ignored O'Keefe's shouts and said she was smoking a cigarette when the veteran sergeant told her to move along.

Within 45 minutes, police were also called to Garcia Brogans on Middlesex Street when students taking part in the pub crawl allegedly caused a disturbance there too. And within minutes of that call police were also called to Crown on Middlesex Street for a report of another disturbance caused by intoxicated students.

Police ended up pulling several patrols cars off their regular patrol routes and dedicating them to monitoring the students in the public crawl.

A city police commander also called UMass Lowell police and asked them to help keep students in line, which drew several UMass Lowell officers into downtown.

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MINUTEMAN HIGH SCHOOL Superintendent-Director Edward Bouquillon didn't land the top job at Greater Lowell Technical High School Tuesday night, but received a contract extension at his current position.

The Lexington Minuteman reported that the Minuteman School Committee voted 8-4-1 on Tuesday to extend Bouquillon's contract for one year at $170,000.

In Tyngsboro on Tuesday, Bouquillon received four votes to become the next superintendent at Greater Lowell. He failed to receive the required five votes. It was the first time in the more than 200 rounds of voting that Bouquillon's name was mentioned.

The vote at Minuteman was not smooth. The committee received a letter signed by 60 parents and alumni requesting the committee seek an interim superintendent rather than extend Bouquillon's contract, the newspaper reported.

"The way those guys operate the crane is like a surgeon," Cunningham said.

The new bridge came in two parts, which are now in place. Officials are waiting for the ramps to be installed to connect the foot bridge to the Nashua River embankments on both sides.

The $385,000 that Special Town Meeting appropriated in February 2012 for the project was worth it, said Cunningham, who pushed for the funding.

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BILLERICA'S SELECTMEN meeting kicked off with a bang at open mike on Monday, as the police report from a February incident inside Town Hall came up in discussion.

Town Meeting representative Virginia Musker accused Town Manager John Curran in February of calling her a liar "over and over" about the town-center redesign plan, an incident Curran did not dispute in his March 1 memo to police. Musker stated she felt "bullied, threatened, humiliated and terrified" of Curran, and the reporting officer, wrote that Musker was "very emotional and crying" when she approached him.

Musker said she had delayed bringing it before the board due to the campaign for the April town election, knee surgery and Town Meeting. She wanted the issue to be discussed by selectmen on Monday night, but Chairman David Gagliardi refused to place it on the agenda.

Musker wanted to know why.

"You (Gagliardi) said in your first email that the board has already made a decision, they talked to the town manager and they read the police report, but in another email you said no, they didn't," Musker said.

Musker accused Gagliardi of writing conflicting emails and wanted to know which one was accurate.

Gagliardi said it was his impression that the board members had an opportunity to address the police report. Selectman Mike Rosa said he hasn't seen the police report, but Rosa admitted that he could have gotten the report if he asked for it.

Musker then explained that she wanted the report discussed at the meeting because she "doesn't believe that unprofessional behavior belongs at Town Hall."

Curran interrupted.

"I don't think I'm going to subject myself to this any longer," he said. "Under the board's rules, residents are not to make personal comments, and she has just ventured into that vein of talking about my professional character and integrity."

Musker said she didn't come to discuss the matter; she was looking for the email clarification and why it wasn't on the agenda.

"Like I said, no member has come to me over the last four months to put it on the agenda," Gagliardi responded. "It can be put on, but I won't do it."

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Contributing to The Column this week: Robert Mills and Lyle Moran in Lowell, John Collins in Dracut, Rick Sobey in Billerica, Sarah Favot in Tyngsboro and Hiroko Sato in Groton.

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